How to Understand the Wholesome Essence of the Ramayana

AN EPIC POEM like Rāmāyaṇa uses several techniques to drive home emotional truth. It is but natural for poetry to speak through metaphors. Characters such as Hanūmān, Jaṭāyu, and the ten-headed Rāvaṇa are not biological realities but emotional realities. Never in the history of the universe did monkeys and birds speak the Sanskrit language and never did a human with ten heads exist. Hanūmān, Jaṭāyu and Rāvaṇa are symbols.

The ten heads, for instance, symbolise the super-human capabilities that the lord of the rākṣasas possessed. He had the intelligence of ten humans and had mastered the four Vedas along with the six vedāṅgas. His physical strength and intellectual acumen only made him arrogant and not wise; he never understood a woman’s heart.

Birds and monkeys, which are sometimes considered beings ‘lower’ than humans were able to understand a woman’s agony much better than the super-human rākṣasa; they even worked towards soothing the agony of Rāma and Sītā and contributed towards establishing dharma.

Moreover, the epic suggests that all forces of nature join hands with the dhārmic person, but even one’s own brother abandons an adhārmic person.

We must gather this kind of message from characters and events of the epic and not bother ourselves with their biological reality or historical accuracy. Also, neither the Rāmāyaṇa nor the Mahābhārata has claimed itself to be a treatise on biology, geography or factual history; their purpose is suggested right at the beginning in order to help readers realise abstract values through stories and metaphors. Willing suspension of disbelief is the primary quality required of the connoisseur.

All early literature of mankind personified many aspects of nature including its flora and fauna. The Sun, Moon, wind, waters, rivers, oceans, clouds, earth, and mountains appear as characters. This is true of the epics composed by Vālmīki, Vyāsa, Homer, Virgil, and others. This feature is even more predominant in Indian epics because Indians have always considered the supreme consciousness as all-pervading – it encompasses and permeates all animate and inanimate beings. The practitioners of Sanātana-dharma never see themselves as separate from nature.

In classical literature, the effectiveness of the communication of ideas scores over what is factual ‘reality.’ This is true in our day-to-day lives as well. We naturally employ figurative expressions while trying to communicate the intensity of an emotion or a situation. We may say, ‘I have butterflies in my stomach,’ ‘All my efforts went down the drain,’ ‘I am on cloud nine,’ or ‘Go to hell!’ We, of course, don’t take the statements literally, but instead rely on the implied meaning. The implied meaning naturally suggests an idea or an emotion.

Exaggeration that comes with stylization is the hallmark of Indian art. It must be kept in mind by the connoisseur that the Indian epics need to be relished with this perspective.

From the foregoing discussion, the reader must not develop the impression that Indian epics are not based on material reality at all. Ayodhyā, Gaṅgā, Kiṣkindhā, Laṅkā, the Himālaya and many other geographical details are real. Many astronomical details are real and so are the descriptions of the seasons, the flora and the fauna of the land. It is also likely that Vālmīki had either witnessed or heard the incidents which constitute the skeletal story of the Rāmāyaṇa. He has then used his creative imagination to fill the story with flesh and blood, thereby adding life to it. The mere skeletal story is neither interesting nor enriching.

The story is simple and linear – a prince is exiled from his kingdom; while in the forest, his wife is abducted; the prince gathers support, defeats the villain and returns home happily with his wife.

This bland narration of the story does not make it an enjoyable poem. The beauty of the epic lies in its details and the value conflicts that the poet lays fleshes out. The poet naturally would have extrapolated and interpolated the skeletal story to make it entertaining and educative.  

There is quite a lot of scope for carrying out research connected with material facts of the Rāmāyaṇa. But in many such cases, the researcher loses vision of the real purpose of the epic and tries to dissect the story like a lifeless body.

Indian scholars and stalwarts like P V Kane, V S Sukthankar, V S Agrawala, Baldev Upadhyaya, D V Gundappa, A R Krishnasastri, V Raghavan, and others trod this path with great caution. They were rooted in Indian culture but were objective in providing critical estimates of the aesthetic and material qualities of the epics. The reader may refer to their works to enrich his understanding of the epics.

To be continued

Notes

• Vibhīṣaṇa, for instance, abandons his vile brother, Rāvaṇa. However, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata, and Śatrughna always stand by each other. In this context, Murāri, the author of the play Anargha-rāghava says,

yānti nyāya-pravṛttasya tiryañco'pi sahāyatām|

apanthānaṃ tu gacchantaṃ sodaro'pi vimuñcati|| (Act 1, verse 4)

• This is also the seed of all later-day animal fables. Moral stories are told through the personification of animals, birds, plants, and trees. The stories of Kathā-sarit-sāgara, Pañca-tantra, Hitopadeśa, Jātaka Tales and Aesop Fables belong to this genre.

• Most works of creative literature use a combination of realistic and fictional spaces and times. For instance, in the Harry Potter series, London is a real place but platform 9 ¾ that leads to Hogwarts is fictional. Similarly, in the Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā, Gaṅgā, and the Himālayas are real, but the abode of Kubera, the flying mountain Maināka, and other details are fictional. The readers must kindly note that the comparison of Rāmāyaṇa with Harry Potter is only to provide an analogy. The aesthetic and spiritual grandeur of the Rāmāyaṇa is incomparable; only the Mahābhārata can join its league among the literary works of the world.